The Caltonian

The Newcastle connection is the most interesting thread to pull. The Caltonian first won there back in October 2023, and has since returned to win on New Year's Day 2025 and again on 16 January 2026. That kind of consistency at a specific venue is genuinely rare — most horses at this level are perfectly ordinary on their favourite track, let alone winning Class 2 races on it. Seven wins from what is clearly a favourite venue, twice at near-top level, is a real achievement for a horse trained out of East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire.

That trainer is Linda Perratt, whose yard has sent out 19 winners already this season — a productive run by any measure. The partnership with jockey Jonny Peate has been particularly fruitful: Peate has ridden The Caltonian in 12 races and won on three of them, a win rate of 25%, which is a genuinely strong number. For context, winning 1 in every 4 races together suggests these two bring out something in each other.

Ground conditions matter here too. On normal ground, The Caltonian has won 7 from 22 races — almost 1 in every 3, which is a striking ratio. Step it outside those conditions and the record dries up. The horse also hasn't converted at Class 3 level, where it has run 13 times without winning. That's a curious gap — better at the top than the middle — which might simply reflect how well the Newcastle all-weather surface suits this particular horse regardless of class.

Recent form shows a win in race five of the last six outings, with slightly mixed results either side. The Caltonian raced just yesterday and remains active. At seven, this isn't a horse building toward something — it has already arrived, at least on its terms, and on its track.